Ladybug #1 – Hanging On Tight

Size: 6″ x 6″Support: Gallery wrap stretched canvasDescription: Close-up oil painting of a red ladybug hanging on tight to a leafy branch. This painting will not require a frame as the image extends around the edges of the canvas surface.

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Artist Comments: This painting is the first of two featuring a ladybug. I actually worked on both paintings at the same time, i.e. Ladybug #1 and Ladybug #2. I painted the ladybug series on six inch by six inch canvases. For such a small creature, I felt 6×6 was the perfect size. I love ladybugs and had been wanting to paint one (or more) for quite some time.

I came across a really good deal on some small canvases and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy 24 of them. When my shipment of 6×6 canvases arrived, I thought this was the perfect time to paint the ladybugs. Before these two particular paintings it had been quite some time since I last painted on such a small canvas. It was a lot of fun and it didn’t take any time at all to finish it.

Now About The Ladybugs!

Ladybugs are wondrous little creatures! They are sometimes called lady beetles or ladybird beetles. They most commonly come in the colors of red, yellow and orange which fades as the beetle gets older. Some species have black spots while others have black stripes and still others are a solid color with no markings at all. Their bright colors serve to warn birds they don’t taste good.

Surprisingly there are over 6,000 different species of this particular insect. They are beneficial insects because ladybugs eat other insects like aphids that often damage agricultural crops and garden plants. As such, ladybugs are often grown commercially and sold to farmers and gardeners.

The life cycle of a ladybug consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Depending on the species, female ladybugs may lay as many as 1,000 eggs from spring to early summer. It usually takes four days for their eggs to hatch.